There Will Be Blood - BLU-RAY Version (2007)

Er....

whatdoiknowbut from Macclesfield , 10/07/2008

Look, sometimes I wonder whether the critics see one film and then another is secretly released in its place. I was all set to be blown away by this film after the acclaim it received, and I ended up feeling like either I was stupid, or the critics were. For the sake of self esteem I'm going to run with the latter. This film did nothing, went nowhere, said little and delivered less. I'm not one to dismiss a film that is distinctly outside the box, but when there's not even a box in sight...There was nothing to grab hold of at all - no plot, no fully formed characters, no story, no semblance of order or rationale.......sorry I just nodded off there. You see the dilemma. If there's something worth re-visiting about this grossly overestimated flick please do enlighten me, I'm curious as to why anyone other than a desperate insomniac would resort to a 3 hour filmic yawn.

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there will be Boredom......

neo67 from Hemel Hempstead [Highly rated reviewer] , 08/07/2008

What a complete waste of time !! Daniel day lewis sounds like Mr Smith from the Matrix and there is really no sense to any of the story and people come and go without any reason.The best part of the film is the scenery which is great on the blue-ray and the oil scenes are great also.Stay away or if you want to sleep, rent this film.

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There will be blood

A customer from Buckie , 12/07/2008

I found this tediously boring and at times totally incoherent. Too much mumbling dialogue that it was difficult to follow what was being said. It was so slow moving that I drank more coffee than usual just to stay awake. The film promised a lot in the trailers I had seen and I like Daniel Day Lewis' previous films. This was a drag from the start.

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Am I missing something

A customer from London , 13/07/2008

I am not adverse to art house cinema, but the props this got from the critics baffles me.

Overly long, little coherence or reason to the story, it's strange to think this is from the man who brought us the sublime Boogie Nights.

I am guessing PTA is a big Radiohead fan, as Johnny Greenwoods score doesn't compliment the picture at all, apart from at one brief point. It's quite clear to see that it is music that was composed for something else and a shame as the picture needs all the help it could get.

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Captivating

A customer from Chorley , 01/11/2008

This movie is captivating, which is suprising as very little happens in the first 30 - 40minutes. Daniel Day Lewis' acting is of the finest calibre and you can't help but being intrigued as to what this solemn brooding man is doing in the middle of the dessert. Essentially the story is about what drives this complicated unpredictable character to drill for oil in the remote praries of America , engaging a community of religious zealots and crossing the local priest as to which his life is linked forever.

The movie looks absolutely amazing on blue ray showing the vistas of the American desert in all it's glory.

There is one point to consider. This movie doesn't have a conclusive ending. It is left for you to interpret the story very much yourself. I spent the next couple of days thinking about the plot and thinking about it's subject and content. I loved it. My girlfriend however thought that it didn't have an ending and that this spoiled it for her.

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Hypnotic Acting in Stunning Blu-ray

Hedgehog1 from Colchester [Highly rated reviewer] , 19/08/2008

You will either love or loathe this film. Those looking for a focussed, straight-as-an-arrow narrative will be sorely disappointed. It's not what this film is about. While its context is set in the oil rush at the start of the 20th century, the film is not the kind of sweeping, cast-of-thousands epic that we have been accustomed to.

No, this is a profound study of the most essential human, not to say biblical, qualities and characteristics: greed, envy, hatred, murderousness and love. These characteristics are embodied principally in the main character of Daniel Plainview, prospector turned oil man, but also in the evangelical preacher Eli Sunday. This is not, however, a crude scenario of good versus evil, because Daniel andEli are both fanatics, as capable of corruption as they are incapable of genuine love. Paul Dano makes a fine job of Eli, showing up well against the force of nature that is Daniel Day-Lewis.

Colossus-like, Day-Lewis dominates this film, partly because he is hardly ever off the screen, but mostly because this is the most hypnotic piece of screen acting you are likely to have seen. His presence is mesmeric, and in watching him, you are sitting on top of a volcano not knowing when it is going to explode, because the restraint and control is so great that when it does blow, the effect is cataclysmic. You simply cannot take your eyes off him, and that is what really carries the film through two and a half hours.

Apart from the stunning acting, this film benefits magnificently from Blu-ray, both through the superb quality of cinematography and the absolutely astonishing film score. It is incomprehensible that Jonny Greenwood's stunning music did not get a BAFTA and was not even nominated for an Oscar. Not a single word is spoken during the first hypnotic 20 minutes of the film which is supported solely by an extraordinary background of music, echoing Glass, Adams, Bartok and Stravinsky, that buzzes, hums, drones and pounds to amplify the struggle that we see before us. The phenomenal uncompressed surround sound track is an operatic score that is as integral to the film as the screen images, setting a distinct aural context. Add to this some explosive pyrotechnics, and this really is a treat.

Paul Thomas Anderson creates an extraordinary and mesmerising film. There are malignant themes which resonate with today's oil-driven, oil-corrupted society, and he does not hesitate to plumb profound depths here. The only poignant strand is Daniel Plainview's relationship with his adopted son, but it tells, and while the murderous conflagration between Daniel and Eli reaches its horrific conclusion, it is this theme which resonates after everything else is over. It is heartbreaking.

This is a truly stunning film which successfully takes the art-house movie onto the streets. It is amazing that the film and music did not do better in the awards. They deserved to. After watching this film, no one will be at all surprised that Day-Lewis was recognised as Best Actor by both the British and American Academies.

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